Sgr A* -- Swift Monitoring Program 2013 - 2018

Swift Daily Monitoring of the Galactic Center

Introduction

This is the home page for the Swift monitoring campaign of the Galactic center. Using almost daily
observations since 2006, this program has provided a unique baseline to study the long-term X-ray
behavior of the central super-massive black hole Sgr A*. We post daily updates of the Swift data to
allow for a quick response if the activity of Sgr A* changes, e.g., due to its interaction with the
gas cloud "G2". When using these results for publications or triggering observing
proposals, kindly cite Degenaar et al. (2013) for a description of the Swift program.

The image on the right represents the summed Swift/XRT image (1.0 Ms) of the inner 15'x15' (~ 35x35
pc) around Sgr A* (mouse over for details), obtained during the Galactic center monitoring campaign
in 2006–2013 (0.3–10 keV). The two brightest point sources that are visible in this image correspond
to two transient neutron star X-ray binaries (see Degenaar &
Wijnands 2009, 2010).

If you have any questions please contact Nathalie Degenaar (degenaar 'at' uva.nl).

If you would like to receive an automatic update via email when flaring behavior is
detected, please email: swift.sgra 'at' gmail.com.

Swift XRT Latest Lightcurve: 18/11/12 @ 01:05:34

SGR J1745-29

The grey shaded region denotes the April/May 2013 outburst
(Degenaar et al. 2013) of a new
magnetar, SGR J1745-29, discovered during routine observations as part of our Sgr A* monitoring
program. Please see the discovery papers by the Swift
(Kennea et al. 2013) and NuStar
teams (Mori et al. 2013) for further
details on this exciting new transient source.

Note: The dips on days ~164/280 are instrumental/analysis artifacts (Reynolds - 140201).

Sgr A* lightcurve in the 2.0 - 10.0 keV band. A source extraction region of radius 10'', centered on
the radio position is utilized, no background has been subtracted. The dashed line represents the
mean count rate measured from 2006-2011 (0.011 ct/s), while the dotted line represents the 3σ
excursion from this, see Degenaar et
al. (2013) for further details. The vertical dashed lines represent the Galactic center
solar constrained window for Swift.

To inspect the long term lightcurve (2006-2012) and additional lightcurve related plots, see here.